81% of the employees feel that flexible working options render in better loyalty towards the organization. Covid is changing everything from work conditions to people’s behavior. After months of lockdown, it is like coming out of a cocoon and venturing into the new world. Support your staff by bringing basic changes to the office building and embrace the new normal.
Paul Haarman answers this question – What can you do to encourage your employees to resume work?
- Enable a Flexi-work culture: With the new normal, it is advisable to encourage people to work from anywhere. Remove the barriers that stop people from working or coming to work. Do not restrict the timings of work. Keep the deliverables more important. If the staff member is willing to log in early and leave early, then support the decision. This way, you can encourage more people to resume the office. Arrange for dynamic work culture by allowing free movement of employees to any floor of the company.
- Make basic changes: Paul Haarman suggests extending the support by lowering the restrictions on the use of the locker system. Turn the system completely into self-service so that the entire staff gets access at any point of the day. Bring smaller changes like spacing out the seating arrangement in the office. Adding more coffee machines to split the group of employees during coffee breaks. You can also offer help with childcare support to some of the key employees who need it. However, this facility is a little tricky to bring into practice. But you can always offer work hours that support the school timings.
- Create robust connection: The biggest advantage of coming to the office and working is the work environment. But it is imperative to provide a faster and better communication system between the staff. You can do this by installing robust wi-fi in the office. Leverage the connectivity by encouraging mobile applications that unite each employee to the entire office. Better communication will break the barriers and give them confidence in the staff.
- Flexi seating arrangement: While most of the employees are still working from home, it is crucial to understand that commuting needs better arrangements. When you say, ‘better,’ it means making variable seating arrangements. The older method was assigning the lockers and seats to confine the staff to one floor or one place. New normal says – Let the employee feel the comfort of working. This would promote more staff coming to the office regularly.
- Go online: The best approach to kick-start the office environment is by starting online. Arrange for online meetings and conferences. Do not restrict people to conference rooms or discussion halls. Many are still not comfortable sitting in busy areas amongst 20 more employees. Let everyone take the calls or attend the important meetings from their Flexi seats. Make use of the technology to support more and more employees.
Paul Haarman guides on the importance of mental health after coved. It is the responsibility of the companies and organizations to extend the required support to every staff. Small and simple steps can do wonders. Let your employees feel safe and comfortable every time they return to work.
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